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Sunday, August 02, 2015

It is not surprising, but it is highly disappointing, that the plan to build a Shiite Muslim mosque in Glenview is not being welcomed by many residents in the area. It is not the first time that residents in Chicago suburbs have tried to shut down a plan to open a Muslim house of worship. The excuses have touched on a wide range of subjects, from the fear that mosques would foster terrorism to the typical high-traffic volume issue.

With Glenview being a suburb with over thirty churches of all different faiths, why is that a minority group of Muslims has so much resistance to also practice their religious beliefs in a venue near their homes? One word--traffic. Many of the churches within Glenview have an attendance of 1,000 plus, yet for some strange reason the traffic of the proposed mosque is more of an inconvenience.

In fact many suburbs around Chicago have to deal with “religious traffic” of their own. Take Calvary Church in Naperville for example. The church has over 4,000 attendees and during high volume days for the church, Rt. 59 has been backed up for miles. It is something that has to be dealt with in order to cater to the right for people to have a designated place of worship. The proposed mosque in Glenview will only draw up to 900 people on three holidays each year, otherwise approximately 650 may attend at one time daily.

The 500 residents out of the 49, 574 residents of Glenview that are against the proposal should be more respectful and open to religious diversity in their city, and stop complaining about the traffic that a new mosque may bring, if that is in fact the true motive of their disapproval.